OUTBREAKS ON WEST COAST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 57

OUTBREAKS ON WEST COAST.

PERIOD OF DROUGHT EX-

PERIENCED.

GREYMOUTH, January 19. ine West Coast is experiencing a drought only an inch and a-half of rain havmg fallen during the past five weeks. Bush fires are general, but no serious damage has resulted. The shortage of water is handicapping the sawmills in some localities, and the rivers generally ata exeptionally low. The forest service officers have been called on to protect the plantation near Ross road, where the bush ha s been ablaze as has also been the case along the Midland railway line an<J to the northward. PLANTATIONS DESTROYED. ’-7 COAL COMPANIES LOSE HEAVILY, . AUCKLAND, January 19. *’ Extensive damage was caused by an outbreak of fire late on Wednesday afternoon on a large wattle tree plantation controlled by the Taupiri Coal Mines, Ltd., on the Rangiriri Hills, near Mercer. It is believed that the conflagration was caused through the falling of a spark from a passing engine into a patch of dryscrub near the railway line. The flames spread with remarkable rapidity, and before they could be checked they were swept by a strong south-easterly wind to an aljoining plantation owned by the Pukemiro Ltd. It was not until late this afternoon that the fire showed signs of subsiding, but by that time about 350 acres of trees on the two properties had been burned.

The two plantations, each of about 500 acres in area, are maintained by the respective companies in order to provide a supply of pit props for tl.eir mines. It is as yet difficult to estimate exactly what area has been burned, although it is believed that about 250 acres were destroyed on the Taupiri Company’s property, and about 80 acres on that of the Pukemiro Company. The damage is estimated at several thousand pounds, that on the Pukemire plantation alone being about £3OOO. Much of the work carried out on the plantations during the past two years will have to be repeated.

HEAVY DAMAGE IN THE NORTH, AUCKLAND, January 20. ‘The fires which broke out in the wattle tree plantations owned by the Taupiri Coal Mines, Ltd., have been extinguished* The damage will be very heavy. Extensive bush fires are reported elsewhere.

Peat fires near Morrinsville resulted in the destruction of a house owned by Mr Vaile, of Masterton, and occupied by Mr O. Jeebe, jun.